The internet is a wonderful tool. Al Gore had nothing to do with it or we would not be using it now. Even with all its faults and inaccuracies, it has changed life and changed the world. It is operating without government interference and works better than Radio Free Europe. And there you have the problem. Enter that meddling body of cut-throats known as the UN. Hostile, oppressive dictators have pushed for this further “control” of its people and won.. This “world body” seems to have no control of itself nor any purpose, other than to further oppressive states. It’s time the US got out of the UN and for the UN to move out of the US.

Off topic, wandering what the hecklers want to say about the independent investigation into the Benghazi murders and Hillary’s inability to utter one word on her department’s tragic mistake and inept leadership:

Wait C-Mac….it gets better. The Administration just tossed the State Dept. under the bus (and I’m surprised there was still room under it)… Hope ‘ol hopey-changy doesn’t need them to sign-off on schemes from here on in.

One question I have yet to see answered and which could come out ostensibly in Clinton testimony under oath is whether Ambassador Stevens, having been turned down by Diplomatic Security and State Admin, appealed directly to SecState for improved personnel and facility security. If he did and if she also turned him down, she would have an exploitable negative on any 2016 candidate resume.

In 1997-1998, requests from Ambassador Bushnell in Nairobi for enhanced embassy security against potential terrorist attacks were turned down by Diplomatic Security and State Admin. Bushnell then made a direct appeal to SecState Albright. She got some limited improvements, none of which were adequate to prevent the disastrous and fatal attack on her embassy in mid-1998.

When Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) recently interviewed Ambassador Susan Rice on the Benghazi affair, Rice was reportedly not very forthcoming when references were made to Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. In 1997-1998 and at the time of the attacks, Rice was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Her defenders claim that she had nothing to do with the security situation in Nairobi because her bureau handled only diplomatic relations and policy. Personally, I find it hard to believe that, if your top boss (SecState) is in direct communication with your ambassador over a vital issue, you, as assistant secretary, are not involved either as info or in an advisory capacity.

I would note that the Benghazi review board listed the Bureau of Near East Affairs as one of the culprits and that someone in that bureau has resigned. In terms of 1997-1998 and in terms of Nairobi, that would have been African Affairs. That brings the claims of Rice’s defenders into question. And it also raises the issue of whether Secretary Clinton was one of those who gave a thumbs down to the requests of Ambassador Stevens. Legitimate question IMO.

Written by ACTivist about 4 years ago.

Yank, you wouldn’t suspect that she would lie under oath if asked that question? For them, trying to find places to hide all the bodies has become “job description”.

Reb — I am aware of the history of the courtroom “I forgots” and” the missing docs were in the White House Library in plain sight all the time surprise surprise.” On this one, however, I am just asking a question any investigator would pose. I don’t know the answer. Maybe she did, and maybe she didn’t.

The Accountability Review Board was led by former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen, USN, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Mullen especially has been assuring everyone that the Board did not find a direct connection between Clinton and the security situation in Libya and surmises that she would not normally be aware of such details. Don’t really know. Given his very notable involvement in the liberation struggle in Libya and his posting to Benghazi as the pointman during the actual fighting, I suspect Ambassador Stevens was pretty close to everybody at the highest echelon in State. How would Clinton NOT know the situation in post-war Libya?

This business of true accountability at the highest levels in the Federal government seems to me to be a real problem — and not just in the Obama administration. We have had two tremendous and bloody screw ups in Fast and Furious and Benghazi. Holder and Clinton accept responsibility as if this this was just a prescribed formality, and it is the senior officials just below them who actually pay some kind of real price. And very little of it sticks politically to the big boss at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Mullen really bothers me on this. He is a Navy man, like I was. In the US Navy, if a ship goes aground or has a collision or some other major disabling problem, it is the ship’s captain who often pays the price by loss of command and likely by loss of career prospects. It does not matter if the captain was asleep in his sea cabin and the ship was under the control of his officers, any screw up by those officers rebounds on the skipper, who is supposed to ensure that they are adequately trained, know their jobs, and do them proficiently at the max. But I guess that kind of tough accountability does not apply so much in the senior civilian ranks these days, especially during election season — unless you have wandered too visibly into the fields of extra-marital activities.